I love baking soda. It literally can do ANYTHING. One of the most difficult stains to remove is rust. Here is an incredibly easy way to remove rust stains from your kitchen counters, using baking soda and water! Watch and learn, friends!

Do you follow a gluten-free or grain-free paleo lifestyle and miss having oatmeal for breakfast? Or are you looking for a new breakfast idea to get out of the morning blahs? Give this puppy a try- it's super easy, full of protein, and will keep you going until lunch time!

Mix and mash all of the ingredients together in a bowl Melt coconut oil or butter in a skillet over medium heat Pour mixture into skillet, and cook over medium until fully cooked - 5 to 8 minutes Pour into a bowl and top with fruit of choice Devour.

It's winter! In the mid-west, this is the time of year that juicy pomegranates start appearing at the grocery store. If you have never eaten pomegranate seeds before, you are really missing out my friend! I had tried numerous ways of opening a pom in the past, but this is by far the best way to do it. Fast, easy, and MESS FREE with NO bowl of water needed! See how I do it int he video below!

My hubby and I moved in to our house this summer, and we have been slowly making it our own. Though, doing so takes a lot of time. We're not fully unpacked by any means, nor do I remember where the unpacked items are half the time, but we're getting there.

One thing that is different about our new house is the closet situation. This is the first time that both of our closets have been in one room, so making the most of the space that we have is a must. I was looking on Pinterest and YouTube the other day trying to get ideas as to how we could make the most of our closet space. I saw this video pinned on Pinterest. It was my inspiration.

The original closets had beautiful 6 panel doors. I love these doors- they're just so doggone pretty! The function, however, was less to be desired. When you have sliding doors like this, the center of the closet becomes very difficult to reach. And, when you're on one side of the closet and want to go to the other side of the closet, you have to close one door to open the other. It just makes for an inconvenient process. My side of the closet sits behind the bedroom door, so I had to close the door before I could access the right side of the closet. Every time I did this, without fail, my hubby would want to come in the bedroom when the door was shut, and then I'd get squashed into the closet to let him in. Kind of like the same thing that happens when you go into the bathroom and have toddlers... or cats.

So what I decided to do was take the doors off, and put up curtains instead!! Notice in the picture that you can only access one half of the closet at a time with the wood doors on the left side, but with the curtains on the right side, you can access the entire space. Oh, and don't judge by the disorganization of the items in the closet on the right... that's all going to be remedied in part 2 of this blog series.

And here is the final product! Cute, huh? If you're interested in purchasing the curtains or tension rods, <--- those are the links to the ones I purchased. Please note, I am an Amazon Affiliate, and those are referral links. If you want to support me and this bloggie, please click through these links before you do your Amazon shopping (Christmas time, don'tchaknow). Thank you!!

"God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference."

Well, here goes. Something I can change is on the horizon, and it only took me 7 years to finally have enough courage to pursue it. I am finishing the current chapter of my book, and about to turn the page. Turn the page to the unknown. The exciting. The somewhat scary. The next adventure.

At the end of December, 2013, I am leaving the safety of my office job, and pursuing full on my entrepreneurial calling.

You see, I received my BM in Music Education and Music Performance in the mid-2000's, and after getting married and working in settings that I didn't mesh with, I gave up on music as a career, thinking that it was a lost cause, and irresponsible of me to pursue something that wasn't 'stable'. So, I rolled up my sleeves and tried to keep a foot in the music door, even though moving out of the town that knew me for my music was going to make that difficult. I took jobs at various area colleges, and they served me well for the time that I needed them. We saved up money, I met with different career mentors that told me to follow my passion (to which I shrugged off because that didn't seem practical), and went on with life.

Then, in the spring of 2012, I got the itch. It was an itch that I couldn't scratch in my current situation. I sat down with my hubby, we looked at our finances, we looked at our house, and we looked at where our LIFE was together. It was time to take a step forward.

The first step toward this next adventure was the (HUGE) decision to move back "into town". We put our house up on the market in October of 2012, and it took until May of 2013 to get it sold. 7 whole months of packing up our belongings, keeping the house in 'showing' condition, rearranging our life to allow for potential buyers to walk through, and apple spice scented BBW wallflowers (yuck). Then, all of a sudden, a buyer liked the house and we accepted their offer. After 7 long months, it was a mad dash to try to find a house that fit "us" before we closed on our previous house with the buyers. We looked at a TON of houses, knowing that we wanted to downsize (relatively speaking), be in an area with a good school system and strong music program, and be close to both of our families. I had other items on my "it would be nice if..." list, like a skylight or two, a finished basement, an upgraded kitchen, etc, but those weren't necessities. Lo and behold, a house came on the market that was perfect for us that fit our most important qualifications (thank you St. Joseph!) and we put an offer down immediately. The offer was accepted, and after a lot of blood, sweat, and tears (and paperwork), the house was ours! Oh, did I mention that I got my skylight?? <3

And then it became REAL. Step one toward my goal was accomplished. No turning back now, it's full speed ahead. Step two- putting my notice in to my 9-5 office job. I do this with mixed emotions because this job was right for where I was in my life during the time that I worked there. But, like everything, things come to an end and all we can do is look back and appreciate what was, and look forward to what is to come.

Since I am making this life change, I decided to make a change on the bloggie front, too. I am not going to shut down my old blog (http://www.anniessimplelife.blogspot.com), but I felt that it was appropriate to close the book on that one, and start anew. Fresh. Revitalized. Blank slate.

About Me

Hi, I'm Ann. I love all things related to music, food, travel, vlogging, art, DIY organization, and healthy living. I hope to inspire you to take small steps each day toward living a happier (or at least simpler) life. My journey is just beginning.